GOP Kansas senator warns Senate would not confirm Kobach as DHS secretary
Amid speculation that former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach (R) may be under consideration to lead the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts (R) is warning Kobach would not survive a confirmation vote.
“Don’t go there, we can’t confirm him,” Roberts told the Kansas City Star when asked about Kobach’s prospects for the nomination.
{mosads}”I never said that to you,” Roberts reportedly added, despite another reporter being present and the Star not having agreed to an off-the-record conservation.
Kobach is also considering running for Roberts’s seat when the senator retires in 2020, according to the Star.
“I have supported Kris Kobach in the past and I have supported every one of Trump’s nominees, but ultimately this will be the president’s decision,” Roberts said in a statement following the story’s publication.
— Senator Pat Roberts (@SenPatRoberts) April 9, 2019
Kobach is both a longtime Trump ally and an archconservative on immigration issues, reportedly the kind of figure President Trump and top aide Stephen Miller are seeking to install to replace Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, whose departure was announced over the weekend.
On Monday, Kobach told Fox News’s Tucker Carlson the department has deliberately stymied Trump’s immigration agenda and that, were he in charge, he would end the release of asylum seekers and freeze migrants’ remittance payments to their home countries.
“I have been in the room when the president has given express orders to leadership at DHS and been assured that yes, those orders will be carried out, and a year later nothing has happened,” Kobach said.
Kobach’s name has also reportedly been in the mix, along with former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, for an “immigration czar” position that would coordinate policy across agencies. He previously served as vice chairman of Trump’s election integrity commission, which was disbanded after it failed to produce evidence to substantiate the president’s claim that millions of people cast illegal votes in the 2016 presidential election.
–Updated 1:45 p.m.
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